


Fractions of Emotion

by periferal



Category: RWBY
Genre: Abandonment, Angst, Drabble Collection, Dysfunctional Family, F/F, F/M, Introspection, Libraries, M/M, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2018-08-08
Packaged: 2018-11-29 07:12:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 37
Words: 3,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11435787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/periferal/pseuds/periferal
Summary: Almost by accident, I've started writing drabbles, each featuring a different RWBY character.I'll add more tags with each update.Posted in the order they're written.





	1. Blake

The library at Beacon closed late. This was not a secret, or anything, the hours were posted on the door next to the detectors, but people still didn’t seem to realize this fact. Or, at least, that’s what Blake assumed, since she usually found herself the only person there.

The first time she had gone there after hours, it had been with the express purpose of studying. Her roommates were all asleep, and she did not want to risk waking Ruby by turning on a light. Eventually, she started going to the library to be alone. She liked the quiet.


	2. Ruby

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby

Ruby liked having Zwei with her. Taking care of him was complicated, sometimes, because he wasn’t technically supposed to be there and ordering bags of dog food would be suspicious. Though Ruby was pretty sure Professor Goodwitch knew about him, given all the barking. Mostly the team (Weiss) got food for him on their trips into town.  
But despite all the complications, having Zwei with her was nice. He was good at waking her up when she fell asleep studying, or clambering up onto her lap when she was anxious. He understood her, for he was also small and noisy.


	3. Weiss

It was hard, at first, adjusting to life outside the mansion. Which would sound silly to say out loud, and so Weiss didn’t, but that didn’t change the reality. She missed Klein. She missed her room, with its books, both the good ones and the questionable ones, and she missed the grounds and the training room and even how Ironwood used to be her uncle, of a sort, when she was younger.

Part of her even missed not having to think so hard about faunus rights, though that part was small. But she did not miss the singing, or Father.


	4. Yang

Yang was cool. She rode motorcycles and intimidated gangsters and punched bad guys in the face until they were knocked out. She could harness her anger into something that could help people, gaining strength from her fears and her need to protect her sister.

She would make her mother proud. Raven would come back.

Because if she was perfect, and strong, and beautiful, and protected her family and was the best possible fighter she could be, her mother would back, and she would love her again.

If Yang could be like that photo of Raven, she would become real again.


	5. Jaune

He wasn’t proud of faking his transcript. It had been his father’s idea, because his father still thought that the Arks could be a family of warriors again.

He mostly felt sick when he was made leader of JNPR. Pyrrha should have been leader, even if her name going first didn’t lend itself so easily to colors. Because she knew how to fight and how to rally people to herself. Jaune didn’t even have a real weapon, or a semblance.

He wasn’t sure who Pyrhha saw when she looked at him, but that was who he would try to be.


	6. Nora

Nora didn’t use a happiness as shield. She didn’t use being excited as a shield, either, because she’d tried that for a while and it mostly left her feeling hollow, which wasn’t a nice feeling.

She was just tired of being sad. She had Ren, and they were best friends, and that was good. He had seen the same death she had, and so she could never be left along with her thoughts, because she had someone who shared them with her.

Not literally, of course. That’d be weird. It was just that he knew her, and she knew him.


	7. Pyrrha

Pyrrha was tired. Not of the fame, exactly, because that was a side effect of being very, very good at tournaments, something she was genuinely proud of. Even being on a cereal box was fun, if a little surreal. Those were all things she could get used to, or have fun with.

She was tired of being perfect. She was tired of not being a person, of being some symbol of achievement instead.

Jaune, for all his awkwardness, only saw her as a person. Ren and Nora too. She was not a symbol to them. She could just be Pyrrha.


	8. Ren

Six months for Ren to speak more than a few words together, and a year to feel safe with the sound of footsteps. It took four years for him to be able to look a horse without clutching Nora’s hand so tightly he could feel the tendons shift. It took five years for him to believe that Nora would not die on him like his parents had. But that trust came.

Now, it was no longer the two of them against the world. He had a family again, and Nora had one too. Yet sometimes he stilled dreamed of hoofbeats.


	9. Summer

Being a leader was not how Summer had imagined herself. She was a capable fighter, that was for sure, but she could not understand what Ozpin saw in her.

If it was the silver eyes, they were not as special as he thought they were, or so she assumed. Whatever it was she could do, and she had never been awake for it, only came to her when she was very, very afraid. That did not translate to leadership.

Even when she learned to control her eyes, she was still uncomfortable with her role. Let Raven lead. She was steady.


	10. Taiyang

He didn’t intend to fall in love with everyone on his team. Honestly, Tai didn’t intend a lot of things, like having two daughters by two women or losing both of them to different things.

Mostly he just wanted to be a good dad, and a good friend to Qrow. The former was hard, but the latter was sometimes impossible. It wasn’t the drinking, not exactly. It wasn’t even the bitterness, or the sarcasm, or the months without contact or how rough they were with each other, sometimes.

It was the blame in Qrow’s eyes. That was the hard part.


	11. Raven

Raven had no regrets. The tribe had called to her in its time of need, and she had answered, unlike her brother, who remained more loyal to the outside world than to his family.

She almost regretted leaving her daughter behind. But Taiyang was a good man, or at least a kind one, and he would raise their daughter well.

And Yang would have a sister, and a mother in Summer. She would grow up outside of just how broken the Branwens could be, sometimes. Raven loved her tribe, but she was not blind to its flaws.

She regretted nothing.


	12. Qrow

Drinking to forget was a bullshit idea. And Qrow didn’t drink to remember, either. He mostly drank to find that numbness, or because he had a headache, or because if he let himself feel his grief too much a Grimm might eat him.

He was sober when he trained Ruby. That was too important to fuck up, especially over something as petty as his emotions. He didn’t need to add booze to his tendency to shed bad luck wherever he went, not around her. Then she went away to grow up.

Tai didn’t like the drinking. Tai worried too much.


	13. Cardin

Bullying Jaune Ark came as naturally to Cardin as his strength or his semblance. And why not? Cardin deserved to be at Beacon, because he knew how to fight, and wasn’t some bullshit chickenshit idiot who thought he could just come in on no merits and act as though that was okay.

That wasn’t okay. It made sense for Jaune to do all of CRDL homework ‘cause it wasn’t as though he’d done any work beforehand.

It didn’t help that Pyrrha Nikos liked him. Not that Pyrrha Nikos was all that great, anyway. He would get her, too, and soon.


	14. Russet

Russet was scared of Coco, but he was more scared of Cardin. So, he joined in on laughing at Velvet, even though in his gut somewhere he knew that if the older team wanted to they’d all have their asses kicked in seconds.

He was generally uncomfortable around faunus. They were just weird, you know? Not natural. They were kind of like Grimm, in that regard, probably. Some weird leftover byproduct of creation.

It had to follow that if their creation was weird, so would be their personalities. No wonder Velvet was so weird and quiet. It was her nature.


	15. Dove

Gods, his team were a bunch of dumbasses. Even Cardin, who was supposed to be a leader, or something, or at least according to Ozpin, was mostly a dumbass.

But it wasn’t as though there was anyone else for Dove to hang out with. Team RWBY were a bunch of simpering morons, and Team JNPR was this weird combo of really good and objectively shit. And Team CFVY? Yatsuhashi was pretty badass, but otherwise? Nah.

So it was best for Dove to not piss off his teammates, and learn what he could on his own. He worked best solo, anyway.


	16. Sky

Sky didn’t want to be here. He didn’t _need_ to be here, either, since his family was frighteningly well off in the best way possible. But his mom had insisted on him doing something useful with his life, or something, so here he was. So what he didn’t always pay the most attention in class?

It wasn’t as though he was going to get kicked out. He was rich, and anyway, he had Jaune to do all his homework now. That was pretty great.

It gave him more time to go after Coco, who was hot, and probably loved him.


	17. Coco

“I can punch him if you want,” Coco said.   
She and Velvet were sitting on their respective beds. It was late. The guys were both asleep and they were whispering.   
“It’s alright,” Velvet said. “He’s just an idiot.”   
Coco had seen her friend fight. She could take out any of the members of CRDL in a heartbeat, if she wanted to.  
“It’s not, though,” she said. “It’s really not. He hurts you.”  
“Doesn’t make it okay to hurt him back,” Velvet said.   
The four of them had seen shit, in their years at Beacon. Yet somehow, Velvet was still nice.


	18. Fox

“I could give you a blowjob if you want,” was the first thing Fox ever said to Yatsuhashi.

In retrospect, he might’ve been just a little bit forward. Just a little.

Yatsu had, to Fox’s eternal gratitude, just rolled his eyes and said, “I prefer knowing the people blowing me.” He seemed to choose each word carefully.

“Fair enough.”

Now, Fox was calmer (somewhat) and a little less desperate for intimacy and also less brainfucked on how exactly he was supposed to get it. He was doing better now.

He did give Yatsu that blow job eventually. That was fun!


	19. Velvet

“Is anyone going to the dance with you?”

Velvet turned to find Coco standing in the doorway to their dorm.

“I haven’t asked anyone,” Velvet said quietly.

Coco looked nervous suddenly. That wasn’t a very good look on her, Velvet thought.

Coco was nice. She didn’t make fun of Velvet’s ears, and she offered to punch people on her behalf. Which was almost romantic.

“Would you like to come with me?” Coco asked. Her confidence was back after barely a second. “I didn’t have anyone to ask, either, and I’m not the worst dancer in the world.”

“Sure,” Velvet said.


	20. Yatsuhashi

“Look,” Yatsuhashi said on his first day at Beacon, “I’m not going to be talking much.”

He said that to Coco, whom he happened to put his sleeping bag next to in the hall that night.

“Good to know,” she said. “What’s your weapon?”

“Sword.”

He went back to his scroll, and Coco didn’t bother him. Eventually, she asked, “Do you like texting?”

“Hm?”

“If I say, gave you my scroll info, would texting be better than words?”

Yatsuhashi thought about it.

He nodded.

Coco smiled. “Cool,” she said. “You seem pretty interesting.”

She never tried to make him talk.


	21. Sun

The big deal people in Vale made about Sun’s shirtlessness baffled him. That’s just how it was, where he was from, because if it’s warm you wear less clothing. And it was warm. He liked the attention, for the most part, and it was funny to see guys and girls after him.

It did not, however, help him get as laid as he would have liked. At all. He could thank the tail for that. He didn’t really care about being a faunus, because it was mostly useful and he could punch people, but running into prejudice was not fun.


	22. Scarlet

It was hard for him not to think about it as a game, at first. Scarlet grew up in the heart of a city, away from any real grimm attack. Sure, there was the occasional flyover by a Nevermore, or the odd exceptionally stupid Beowulf, but those were pests, not monsters.

He went to Haven more to escape his father than anything else, and because, he thought, if he knew how to fight, he might as well get better at it.

Then the Festival went… well it went the way it went. And suddenly life was not a game anymore.


	23. Sage

His parents never really told him whether he was named after the word or the plant. In either case, Sage felt his name was a bit much to deal with. He had done extremely well on the written part of his entrance exam, but honestly, what he really wanted was to fight, and to fight well.

That’s why he chose a sword, originally. Something big and clobbering that would help him defeat enemies and Grim alike. He assumed he was good with his sword. He would drive away the Grimm. And he was good, but there were just too many.


	24. Neptune

What was it with Beacon and hot girls? It wasn’t as though the girls at Haven were bad looking, or anything, but, like—well take Yang. Yang was really, really hot. And, she could punch stuff, and she was aware of just how hot she was.

Which to Neptune was pretty great.

And then there was Weiss. Sure, she could be a bit distant, but she had that whole white on pale clothes/skin combination going on there. And, like Yang, she was a kickass fighter, and there was just something so aesthetic about a sword.

Yeah, Beacon was pretty great.


	25. Chapter 25

Mercury would be the last person to bother apologizing for his actions. What did people want him to do, feel bad about it? Considering how he’d been raised, the world at large should have been grateful that he wasn’t going around killing people whenever he wanted to.

He joined up with Cinder because she gave him an out, and in the end what was a little chaos against a world that had never bothered with him anyway? Originally, he had assumed she just wanted to take over the world.

He should have known she wanted to burn it down instead.


	26. Emerald

Emerald didn’t care that much about Cinder’s quest. Sure, screwing with the various systems of power was pretty cool, as was doing the occasional merc work, but mostly Emerald was interested in staying with Cinder because the woman had, if nothing else, kept her promise. Emerald had not been hungry since she joined up, and nothing could compare to that.

But she had always assumed she could just back out if she wanted to. That’s what she liked, the ability to bolt when it became too dangerous for her to stay.

Here, with Salem, she had no choice either way.


	27. Neopolitan

Neopolitan was good at what she did, and she knew it. The cutesy aesthetic, the umbrella, the silence? All misdirection, and most people fell for it. They fell for it, until there was a knife in their backs, or more likely, they fell off a very tall building.

Roman didn’t fall for it. She liked that about him, how he could look through the lies in a situation and come out on top of it. And she liked him, too. He was so loud, so brash, that she trusted he would not betray her. He would announce it, loudly, first.


	28. Cinder

It is not her place to doubt. It is not her place to ask questions, or to disobey orders, or to wonder, or speak when not spoken to.

It is not her place to mourn the loss of her eye, or the ruination of her voice. It is Cinder’s place to be her mistress’s tool, her mistress’s hand among man.

She is the Fall Maiden, well and truly so. She has the power of the Gods, and she will serve her mistress’s ends. She will twist the Good Brother’s creation to his brother’s end.

She does not wish to leave.


	29. Ozpin

There were nights when Ozpin felt as though he were merely leading his charges to their deaths. That no matter how hard he tried, or how well he prepared them, they would die young or grow just old enough to resent him.

He did not understand Qrow’s loyalty, or Glinda’s kindness, or Peter and Bartholomew’s continued presence at his side. What had he ever done but give them half-truths, train them for a future even he could not be certain of?

Now, Ozpin could only hope that Oscar would know what needed to be done. What else could he do?


	30. Glynda

Glynda’s faith that Ozpin knew what he was doing was not unwavering. He was many things, most of them strange or supernatural, but he was still a person.

He could still make mistakes. And, of course, he could still die.

And die he did, much to Glynda’s despair. That was the emotion, wasn’t it, despair? She couldn’t feel it much, of course, because there was no time, but the pointless war they fought seemed even more so, after.

She owed it to her students not to give up. She owed it to her colleagues, to Vale, and especially, to him.


	31. Bartholomew

Did he move too fast or not fast enough? There were times were Bartholomew was not sure, when his hands shook and he was no longer sure of his convictions.

Those times came more often nowadays. He had told Team RWBY in that old abandoned city that he had chosen his profession so that he might guide the younger generation. Could he still do that, after everything?

Salem and her ilk were on the march. Their greatest weapons were children, ghosts, and broken adults.

His school was broken, perhaps forever. He had nothing left to fight for, except the world.


	32. Peter

Peter was steady. He would laugh, and he would drink, and he would make boisterous talk, but he would not move from his spot by his friend’s side.

When Bart’s mind moved as fast as his hands, when the edges were too harsh, Peter was steady. His grief would not bring grimm to the door, for he did not grieve. He hoped. He hoped for Bart’s sake, for Glinda’s sake, for their students’ sake, for his own sake.

And so, Peter was steady. He would not let Bart crash against rocks of his own creation, even as the world changed.


	33. James

He had warned Ozpin. There was danger coming, danger that had to be met with weapons, with things that could fight without drawing Grim.

Ironwood had prayed to the Brothers he would not be proved right. He hoped that the people Ozpin did not want to worry would, perhaps, live long enough to never worry at all.

He knew that fear would draw Grim. He knew this in his body, both metal and flesh parts. But he would rather a little more fear now and fewer Grim later.

Beacon was dead. Ozpin was dead.

Atlas could help.

Atlas would not.


	34. Jacques

This was his company, now. And with the company came a level of control over the politics of Atlas which Jacques Schnee was not about to give up easily.

Winter was too powerful in her own right to make a good heir, a military woman who took after her mother. She was better off going on her little missions.

Weiss, he had thought was perfect once, a delicate creature to be shaped into his vision for the company. But she had changed, and through her change she would wreck his work.

Whitley—now there was a pawn. He was perfect.


	35. Jaune & Ren

“How many times have you watched that video?”

It was Ren speaking, Jaune realized distantly. His focus was still on following the directions from Pyrrha’s recording.

“I don’t know,” he said. He couldn’t leave the silence now that someone else had broken it.

“It’s okay, you know,” Ren said. “I understand.”

“Pause.” He lowered his sword and turned to look at Ren. “Do you?”

Ren smiled weakly. He looked over at the campsite where Ruby and Nora slept. “We only had our clothes,” he said. “I’m glad you have the video.”

Jaune couldn’t answer past the lump in his throat.


	36. Winter

There was only so much she could do for her sister. It wasn’t her fault. Her father was too powerful.

These things, Winter told herself. These words were a mantra in her head as she traveled, searching, searching, for something to fix all this.

It was not her place to rescue her sister. It was not in her power to rescue her sister. Weiss had made her choice.

Winter had made hers.

Atlas was a cold place. It changed you.

There was only so much she could do for her sister. It wasn’t her fault. Her father was too powerful.


	37. Whitley

His sisters were pathetic. He knew this like he knew that his mother was had been weak, and that his father was strong. His father had built an empire without the help of semblances or aura, all the ridiculous things her older sisters considered so important. Why had Weiss fled? She would be happy if she just listened to father and played along with the easy game that was living in Atlas. What could possibly be there for her, out in the grimm infested world? He was not jealous of his sisters. These were the things Whitley Schnee told himself.


End file.
